


So This Is Ever After

by Sabeth_Ravenwing



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, No Shepard without Vakarian, Post-Reaper War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 21:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17067509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabeth_Ravenwing/pseuds/Sabeth_Ravenwing
Summary: This takes places some 25 years after the reaper war. My shepherd was an earth born, war hero, vanguard. She romance no one, and had a one nighter with Javik. I’m going to say she got the non-cannon happy ending, were the geth, Edi, and she all get to live but the reapers die. (She was my 7th play through I want a real happy ending.) In my mind this Shepherd stays a workaholic teaming up with Garrus and many others to put things back together. Things are still being rebuilt, but through quite a bit of political upheaval and hard work they are on track. But as always when you are the hero of the story trouble is always waiting right over the hill, old enemies are falling out of the wood work, and new ones are looking to pick a fight. This is one of those quite moments in between.





	So This Is Ever After

Garrus hears banging of pots and pans outside his cabin, the XO rooms on the SR2. He rolls over to find an empty spot next to him, then remembers his bondmate had been called off for a mission. With a tired huff he pulls himself up and dresses. In the mess he finds a strange sight, Admiral Shepherd cooking. She has cured meat, bacon, frying in one pan and pulling more food from the fridge. He sees she already has food ready for the turian and quarian crew in the warmers. “Shepard! What the heck are you doing up.” They had just got done doing 72 hours of back to back drops, only taking short breaks for cat naps. She should still be sleeping, heck he had been only been out for 6 hours and clearly she has been up for a while.

“Making breakfast for the crew.” She states as if it was plain to see then starts cracking eggs into a pan.

He let out a low tired sigh, “Why not let Alssa do that, it is her job as cook after all.”

“She is burned out from cooking nearly none stop meals for the ground teams, I had Edi turn off her alarm so she could get some rest.” She flipped the bacon and scrambles the eggs.

Garrus grabs himself some tea and a Kranton cake. “And you are not?” 

“No, not really. I had a good rest and figured I’d do something nice for the crew. This tour has been a hard one.” She dumps the bacon and eggs into the warmer, and starts on pancakes.

He nurses his tea and slowly works on his cake, it is quite good, while thinking about how to get his friend to take a breather without triggering the classic Shepherd stone walling. If his bondmate was here she would just order it as the ships doctor. But she had been called off on a co-op mission and none of her medics have the quad to face Shepherd. “Why don’t you take an extended shore leave? The ship could use some work and as you said the crew is burned out. I’ll see if I can worm a few extra days off before I have to ship off for my mission and Livia should be back from her mission. It will be just like old times.” He reaches over for another cake, Shepherd’s cooking has gotten really good over the years.

Thinking about it she places the plate of pancakes in the warmer and grabs herself a plate and some coffee. “It would give everyone a chance to recharge, and the techs time to go through the data we grabbed. You will have some time with your bondmate before you have to leave for your mission.” Then her eyes narrowed at him.

Garrus just sips his tea and hopes she isn’t seeing through his plan as much as he thinks she is.

She glares at him a moment then breaks out in a grin. “You are just trying to make me take a break. Had to try and get clever since you don’t have your wife her to boss me around.”

Well, she saw right through that. He finishes crunching on the last bit on the cake, and sips his tea again. “I would never.” Then losses the battle and gave her a big grin back. He pushes away from the counter and places his hand on her back. “Look if you burn yourself out now what good are you later. Plus you are my friend it is my job to remind you to take care of yourself.”

She leans slightly into his touch and smiles back at him. Then a crash comes from the direction of the crew quarters and the sound of scampering feet. A preteen human girl and a turian girl of similar age come racing in the mess. They give Shepherd and Garrus drive by hugs as they dive into the food. Shepherd clears her throat and they both look up and realize their mistake.

“Um...Sorry” they both say at the same time. They quietly dish up their plates and sit at a table. 

Shepherd does her best to hide her smile at their youthful enthusiasm. As much as she loves her youngest daughter and niece’s unbridled joy she can’t let them run around like heathens. She also can’t let them know that she finds it amusing, she will never get them to mind.

The human girl, Morgen, pipes up. “Good food Ma” Then dives back in.

The Turin girl, Julia, nods her head in agreement. “These are quite good Kranton cakes Amita. They taste just like my Mater’s” 

Garrus finds himself agreeing with is daughter, as he washes up his dishes.

Shepherd just gives a wider grin. “You’re welcome Morgen, and Julia they should she taught me how to make them.”

Morgen gave her mother a very shepherd like wolfish grin, “You know Alssa is very upset that she slept in. Apparently she slept through her alarm.” she paused for effect. “You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you Ma?”

Shepherd pulls her best innocent face. “Nope” then turns to wash her plate.

Garrus enjoys watching the two Shepherds women trade jabs. The youngest of her girls shows a lot of promise of becoming just a fierce of women as her mother.

About then a the crew starts rolling out for first shift. One of the first of the mixed crew was a very small and rather young asari, only a mere 87.

She stumbles and salutes Shepherd, “Sorry Specter, I seem to some how slept through my alarms. Both of them.” she looks at the breakfast that Shepherd has put together and begins to fidget.

Shepherd waves it off like it was nothing, “Oh no worry, it let me pull out the special stores and do something fun. If anyone needs me I’ll be in my cabin drawing up shore leave rotation. Looks like we will need to stay in port a few extra days for repairs.” A small cheer goes up among the crew who are filing into the mess. “Mah, yeah, yeah. You shouldn’t be so happy we took damage.” But softens her words with one of her wolf grins. Then leaves.

The poor asari is left a little flustered. She is still very young and doesn’t quite understand the way Shepherd ticks, even though she has spent the last 22 years with her. Shepherd had given the girl a spot on the ship after the war, the girl is a hard worker, organized, steller cook, and an orphan with no close family. When Steve was reassigned she was able to step and fill part of the requisitions role he had been playing, along with cook. She gets a steady pay check and the mother figure a girl her age desperately needs. 

Garrus finds himself thinking of old times. Shepherd had been a fury of action after she had recovered from the her injuries from the war. She busted butt to keep everyone working together. Finding people useful jobs, made sure the young children where care for and the older given chances to step up. At the same time she had done her best to keep old wounds from flaring up. It hadn’t been perfect, the races that had held back were frown upon. Everything had been resting on a knife edge for many years after. But she had done it. Now a very old threat was rearing its head. There had been reports the Leviathans were sniffing around and were possibly behind the increasing problems with dark matter. This whole mission had been about trying to find prof of that. He just hoped the data was what they needed. He hopes it is worth it.

He feels a tug at his sleeve.

“Garrus, It is time for our weapons training. Can you do it today?” Morgen asked politely but eagerly, making what Shepherd calls her Puss in Boots face.

He pushes away from the wall and gives a nod, “Gear up and meet me in the cargo bay in ten.”

They give a little cheer and scamper off.

As he walks away he hears a frazzled Alssa argue with Edi over her alarm, accusing the AI of shutting it off. He pulls her aside, “Hey, you know Shepherd told her to. You needed to sleep, but you didn’t hear that from me.” He says to her in a low voice then heads to the elevator. 

She looks at his back shocked as he makes his way to the cargo bay. Her face marked with confusion.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a handfull of chapters floating around in my head, but they are just one shots. So If I have time to write up more I'll leave it here.
> 
> Kranton cake: a turian breakfast food I made up. I'm thinking something like a meat hash with veggies fried into a crunchy cake. It is a staple of the the turians but every place does it different and eats it differently.


End file.
